Quantitative and qualitative aspects of flow DNA measurements related to the cytologic grade in prostatic carcinoma

The cellular DNA content of fine needle aspirates from 300 patients with newly discovered, untreated prostatic carcinomas was measured by flow cytofluorometry. Well-differentiated tumors were mostly diploid or tetraploid aneuploid while poorly differentiated tumors were almost exclusively aneuploid, with a predominance of nontetraploid modal values. Moderately differentiated tumors exhibited either diploid or any aneuploid pattern. No multiple aneuploid cell lines were found in well-differentiated tumors, but the frequency increased with malignancy grade up to 21%. The proportion of aneuploid cells was significantly higher in nontetraploid tumors and increased with the malignancy grade. These results justify the subdivision of aneuploid prostatic tumors into cases with tetraploid and nontetraploid cell lines. The quantification of aneuploid cells may imply a new parameter in the biologic evaluation of these tumors.